#ausvotes

ALP Asylum Seekers Policy

• Summary

  The ALP believes that Australia should grant people who have genuinely suffered persecution in their homeland the right to live here when they seek asylum. Proper processing of these individuals is imperative in our duty to protect our nation and its citizens. While processing of asylum seekers needs to be humanly conducted the practice of people smuggling must be eradicated in the first instance.

  
  

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  The ALP has expressed the view that a person can hardly be labelled a racist for the mere fact that they are anxious about the influx of asylum seekers.

  
  

  The government maintain that people in genuine need of asylum should be granted the right to live in Australia. With mandatory detention, processing of asylum seekers is able to be completed efficiently with minimal strain on individuals and resources. This detention is not a system of punishment and so children will be spared the razor wire of the past. Media access will replace the secrecy that governed once surrounded detention centres, and the previous system of temporary protection visas will be replaced by a system of visas that allows for families to reunite and settle in Australia together.

  
  

  With numerous boat loads of asylum seekers arriving mainly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, the ALP has been under tremendous fire to contain the flow of asylum seekers that land on our shores. With the intent of discouraging people from risking the perilous journey to Australia, and particularly since both Sri Lank and Afghanistan are experiencing rapid evolution, the government took decisive action to freeze the processing of applications from both these countries for a fixed period. While the flood of asylum seekers has remained, the government has reviewed their respective situations and recognises that Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have both potential for imminent improvement. With a recent national election in Sri Lanka and the return of multitudes of people to their homes, the freeze on Sri Lankan applications reached its expiry and has been lifted, while that on Afghani applications remains. Afghanistan is intrinsically quite unique in her circumstances, and the freeze on applications from Afghanistan remains. Afghanistan has improved somewhat since the Taliban’s fall from power. With constitutional and legal reform, Afghan minorities like the Afghan Hazaras are no longer victimised and are enjoying full participation in Afghan society. Still, the international effort continues in a bid to remove the Taliban’s foothold of the mountains and the ALP awaits further improvements in the region.

  
  

  Attempts have been made to institute a regional processing centre in East Timor as part of a sustainable regional protection framework.

  
  

  That the East Timorese are as yet unwilling to entertain the idea has not stopped the government participating in ongoing discussions to that end. The Nauru processing centre of Howard inception is not an alternative due to being geographically less advantageous and also the fact that Nauru is not a party to the Refugee Convention. Further possibilities to house a regional asylum seeker processing centre exist in New Guinea.

  
  

  In order to remove incentives for people to risk their lives travelling to our shores and stem the flow of asylum seekers the government has planned to fashion a legislative attack on people smugglers of any sort, and if re-elected promise to enact new laws prohibiting individuals giving any assistance to asylum seekers in coming to Australia whatsoever. The Federal police will be empowered by law and additional funding to create a specialist unit to conduct investigations into breaches of the legislation. In addition to protecting airports and seaports, the ALP will police the labour market to ensure that illegal workers are not undermining the negotiated pay and conditions in Australia.